Pagan Shrines to Be Destroyed

12 “These are the statutes and ordinances that you must diligently observe in the land that the Lord, the God of your ancestors, has given you to occupy all the days that you live on the earth.^(A)

² “You must demolish completely all the places where the nations whom you are about to dispossess served their gods, on the mountain heights, on the hills, and under every leafy tree. ³ Break down their altars, smash their pillars, burn their sacred poles^[a] with fire, and cut down the idols of their gods, and thus blot out their name from their places.^{(B) 4} You shall not serve the Lord your God in such ways. ⁵ But you shall seek the place that the Lord your God will choose out of all your tribes as his habitation to put his name there. You shall go there,^{(C) 6} bringing there your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and your donations, your votive gifts, your freewill offerings, and the firstlings of your herds and flocks. ⁷ And you shall eat there in the presence of the Lord your God, you and your households together, rejoicing in all the undertakings in which the Lord your God has blessed you.^(D)

⁸ “You shall not act as we are acting here today, all of us according to our own desires, ⁹ for you have not yet come into the rest and the possession that the Lord your God is giving you. ¹⁰ When you cross over the Jordan and live in the land that the Lord your God is allotting to you, and when he gives you rest from your enemies all around so that you live in safety,^{(E) 11} then you shall bring everything that I command you to the place that the Lord your God will choose as a dwelling for his name: your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and your donations, and all your choice votive gifts that you vow to the Lord.^{(F) 12} And you shall rejoice before the Lord your God, you together with your sons and your daughters, your male and female slaves, and the Levites who reside in your towns (since they have no allotment or inheritance with you).^(G)

³ We are putting no obstacle in anyone’s way, so that no fault may be found with our ministry,^{(A) 4} but as servants of God we have commended ourselves in every way: in great endurance, afflictions, hardships, calamities, ⁵ beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger;^{(B) 6} in purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, holiness of spirit, genuine love, ⁷ truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left;^{(C) 8} in honor and dishonor, in ill repute and good repute. We are treated as impostors and yet are true, ⁹ as unknown and yet are well known, as dying and look—we are alive, as punished and yet not killed,^{(D) 10} as sorrowful yet always rejoicing, as poor yet making many rich, as having nothing and yet possessing everything.

¹¹ We have spoken frankly to you Corinthians; our heart is wide open to you. ¹² There is no restriction in our affections but only in yours. ¹³ In return—I speak as to children—open wide your hearts also.^(E)

The Temple of the Living God

¹⁴ Do not be mismatched with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and lawlessness have in common? Or what partnership is there between light and darkness?^{(F) 15} What agreement does Christ have with Beliar? Or what does a believer share with an unbeliever? ¹⁶ What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we^[a] are the temple of the living God, as God said,

7 Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of flesh and of spirit, making holiness perfect in the fear of God.^(J)

Jesus Cleanses Ten Men with a Skin Disease

¹¹ On the way to Jerusalem Jesus^[a] was going through the region between Samaria and Galilee.^{(A) 12} As he entered a village, ten men with a skin disease approached him. Keeping their distance,^{(B) 13} they called out, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” ¹⁴ When he saw them, he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were made clean.^{(C) 15} Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice.^{(D) 16} He prostrated himself at Jesus’s^[b] feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan.^{(E) 17} Then Jesus asked, “Were not ten made clean? So where are the other nine? ¹⁸ Did none of them return to give glory to God except this foreigner?” ¹⁹ Then he said to him, “Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.”^(F)